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Two Chicago runners who didn't finish last year's race because of the bombings talk about returning to Boston this year. Regina Waldroup reports. (Published Tuesday, Apr 15, 2014)

The Boston Marathon tragedy hit close to home for a group of Chicago runners who were just short of the finish line when the first bomb went off.

Now they're making the emotional journey back for the 1-year anniversary. Jackie Hodges and Jerry Rauman were just shy of mile 26 when tragedy struck.

Photos: Boston Marathon Blasts

"We heard the bombs, saw the smoke," Rauman said. "It is such a small margin of error that separated us from being right there."

"It was the most amazing run on the worst day possible," Hodges said. "It could have been us."

The Boston Bomber Manhunt

Three people were killed in the bombings, along with an officer who died in a shootout with the bombing suspects several days later.

Hodges and Rauman expect Monday's run to be an emotional one, honoring the victims of the bombings and the first responders who jumped in to help.

"There is not a time that I put on my running shoes that I don't think about those people who can't run, or can't walk," Hodges said. "We're going back to finish what we started last year."

"We'd like to say our marathon time is gonna be 1 year, 5 days, 4 hours and 5 minutes, about, so this is the completion of last year for us," Rauman said.

Hundreds of Chicago-area runners will competed in the Boston Marathon this year, trying to turn tragedy into triumph.

"For some people it is part of the healing process, for people that experienced the tragedy closer than I had. It is also again to show a resolve we 're not going to be deterred from being who we are," said Wendy Jaehn of the Chicago Area Runners Association.